Geeks To Go is a helpful hub, where thousands of volunteer geeks quickly serve friendly answers and support. Check out the forums and get free advice from the experts. Register now to gain access to all of our features, it's FREE and only takes one minute. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more.

GWY Laptop will not recognize OS in a swapped HDD

brinas30

Posted 14 December 2008 - 08:00 PM

brinas30

Member

Member

49 posts

I received an old Dell laptop with XP Professional with some awesome software on it, but it has a corporate network password I can't get past. I'd like to remove the passwords so I can use the operating system itself. I'm unable to use any password tools because it doesn't have a DVD/ CD ROM drive or Floppy. So...I took the hard drive out and stuck it in a Gateway laptop I have so I can bypass the password..also, I swapped the hdd adapters correctly...but I get:
"No Operating System Found"...which I know isn't correct. Now the Dell recognized the IDE hard drive with no problems..in fact I'm on it now.

I've taken the drive out and remounted it a few times to ensure it was installed correctly. BIOS recognizes the drive, but cannot access the OS.
I only have these two laptops...suppose I could find a friend who trusts me to use their unit to mount my HDD and try it there, but I'd rather try you guys first